1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to footwear, and particular to devices for improving the fit and appearance of footwear such as sandals and other footwear having a portion extending over the top of a wearer's foot.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Sandals have been very popular for many years, and are widely used indoors and outdoors except in very cold weather. One of the most common types of sandals are V-strap sandals, where two ends of a V-shaped strap are attached to the sole of the sandal on the opposite sides of the sole where a wearer's foot would rest, and the connection of the intersection of the straps of the V-shaped strap with a thong or toe piece extending from the sole for placement between the big or first toe and the second toe of the wearer's feet. In general, more expensive V-strap sandals are made from leather, suede, patent leather, metallic finished material, fabric and other textiles. Less expensive V-strap sandals are called “flip-flops,” and are generally made from a rubber-like material or from vinyl or other artificial leather material. V-strap sandals in general, and flip-flops in particular, do not usually fit well, and are often quite loose. It is very common for persons wearing V-strap sandals, and especially flip-flops, to accidentally have one of their feet slip to the side and/or go over the edge of the sole, actually have the V-strap sandal slip off the foot while walking, fly off in the event the wearer goes through a kicking motion, have the end of the sole slip slightly off the front of the toes while walking and get struck in the ground to cause tripping or falling, and slip sideways off the V-strap sandal to result in a sprained ankle or the like.
In addition to these safety issues relating to V-strap sandals, and especially flip-flops, these types of footwear is often unattractive or at least look inappropriate when worn in various situations. People are often embarrassed by simply going shopping wearing flip-flops or many other types of V-strap sandals because not only are they loose fitting, but they appear extremely informal, i.e. sloppy. Flip flops and other V-strap sandals have numerous varieties on the market. The soles can be one layer or multilayer. The V-shaped straps can be attached on the side edges of the sole or on top of the sole, and forward or rearward along the side of the sole. The part of the heel portion of the V-shaped strap could be a continuous piece and embedded in the heel part of the sole, or have the ends attached in any number of ways to the rear part of the sole or be raised up to engage the back of the wearer's heel. The thong could be fixed at on end to the forward part of the sole, or fixed to a post extending upwardly from the sole. The thong could be integral with the V-shaped strap or attached thereto by sewing, adhesives, molding, and the like. The V-strap also could be attached to the sole by being placed between layers of the sole, riveted, sewn, molded or fixed by adhesives to or within the sole. The forward portions of the V-strap could incorporate part of the thong. The invention described below can work with virtually every kind of flip-flop and other V-strap sandals. In some situations, people would want to change the appearance of the flip-flops or other V-strap sandals, such as to fit some type of theme or environment, such as athletic, formal, Latin American, outdoors, an amusement theme for children or adults, school, employment or fraternal organizations and numerous other themes. There is thus a need for converting flip-flops and other V-strap sandals from an initial appearance to any desired theme, and it would be particularly advantageous to make conversions from one theme to another in a fast and inexpensive manner.
Flip-flops and other V-strap sandals are often used simply to protect the feet, and are frequently worn in very informal situations where the wearer has few if any places to store important items such as pharmaceuticals, keys, watches, a GPS system, miniature telecommunication devices and the like. Flip-flops and V-strap sandals have previously not been able to store such items by means of removable accessories. Although utilizing this type of footwear for storage purposes may have occurred to others in the past, it would be uneconomical for manufacture of such footwear and add the expensive storage compartments on large quantities of footwear when many possible buyers of footwear would not want such storage compartments. In addition to the convenience that some people may want for having a storage area associated with flip-flops and other V-strap sandals, such storage areas are particularly important in some situations such as for children separated from parents or other guardians who have intercommunication or location identification devices, identification devices and small cell phones; people under the care in sanatoriums and the like who need electronic locating systems, drug supplies. People in remote areas or on beaches, who are wearing flip flops and other V-strap sandals and may want to carry keys, timepieces, drugs, locating systems, telecommunication devices such as cell phones, and the like. Such people would find it very helpful to have a carrying device other than a handbag as a storage facility which would not impair movement of their arms, legs or shoulders and not require pockets or enlarged pockets as might otherwise be necessary for bathing suits, recreational clothing, etc.
Another type of footwear suffering some of the same shortcomings of V-strap sandals, are footwear where a portion of the footwear goes over the foot of the wearer and does not have a thong. One type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,993,858 (Seamans, 2006) describing footwear which is known by the name of assignee, Crocs.
Accessories for footwear are well known for a variety of purposes. Accessories for flip-flops and other sandals are known, particularly for decorative purposes. Prior art disclosing such decorative accessories include U.S. Pat. No. 3,748,757 (an enlarged decorative top portion carried on the top of a thong), U.S. Pat. No. 6,769,204 (a foot retaining strap and a ribbon having a visible decorative portion and a lower portion for attachment to the strap by hook and loop fastener structure), U.S. Pat. No. 7,200,959 (a flip-flop having a strap with receiving members for receiving interchangeable connecting pieces), Pub. No.: US2004/0093765 (Published May 20, 2007; a flip-flop having V-shaped straps having a releasable cover with ornamental beads thereon) and Pub. No.: US2006/0254085 (Published Nov. 16, 2006; a flip-flop having a fabric cover wrapped around the V-shaped strap of the flip-flop). There are also a number of design patents disclosing decorative accessories for flip-flops, namely, U.S. D535,186 (Boschok 2006; an artificial flower at the intersection of the two parts of a V-shaped strap), D498,348 (Hunt et al. 2004; a series of ribbons wrapped around V-shaped strap of a flip-flop) and D421,520 (Bonny et al. 2000; a floral T-bar on the V-shaped strap of a flip-flop). Japanese Publications 2006-130267, 2006-130268 and 2006-130269 disclose thong ornaments for flip-flops.
There are also known numerous patents disclosing various decorating accessories for sandals and open women's shoes, including the following: U.S. Pat. No. 2,344,620 (Langley 1944), U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,633 (Connelly 1984), U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,102 (DeVincentis 1984), U.S. Pat. No. 2,971,278 (Scholl 1961), U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,058 (Jneid 1999), Pub. No.: US2005/0011087 (Stevens, Published Jan. 20, 2005), Pub. No.: US2005/0066550 (Liu, Published Mar. 31, 2005), Pub. No.: US2006/0107550 (Caminiti, Published May 25, 2006), and design patent numbers D346,686 (Hatfield 1994), D512,207 (Choi 2005) and D530,240 (Kelsey 2006).
Pocket, pouches and other containers are also known for footwear. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,539 (Mann 1984) a pocket is positioned on a side strap extending from the sole to the thong of the sandal. In D292,441 (Gamm 1987), a sandal with a wrap over strap has a pocket on the strap. Numerous pockets are known for use with shoes with laces, where the pocket is attached to the shoe by the laces, including U.S. Pat. No. 2,662,677 (Perry 1953), U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,566 (Haskell 1981), U.S. Pat. No. 4,327,512 (Oliver 1982), U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,882 (Harrell 1985), U.S. Pat. No. 4,536,975 (Harrell 1985), U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,383 (Gamm 1985), U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,016 (DiVito 1992), U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,679 (Birch 1994), U.S. Pat. No. 5,596,821 (Solo 1997), U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,011 (Britano 1998), U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,497 (McAtee 2002), U.S. Pat. No. 6,449,881 (Assaf et al. 2002), Pub. No.: US2004/0163285 (Johnson; Published Aug. 26, 2004) and Design Pat. Nos. D369,458 (Adams 1996) and D382,691 (Fuller et al. 1997).
Various accessories for decorating lace-up shoes are also known in the art, as evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,422 (Valteau, III 1998), U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,085 (Ross et al. 1999), U.S. Pat. No. 6,412,197 (Krull 2002), U.S. Pat. No. 6,640,467 (Krull 2003), U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,337 (Harrington 2006), Pub. No.: US2006/0010721 (Valko; Published Jan. 16, 2006) and D404,770 (Meade et al. 1999). A decorative strap for attachment to a slip-on moccasin is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,311 (Epstein et al. 1976).
There are also a large of number of patents disclosing accessories for use with lace-up shoes for protecting the laces, including U.S. Pat. No. 910,308 (Peters 1909), U.S. Pat. No. 2,650,399 (Torelli 1953), U.S. Pat. No. 2,871,537 (Hickerson 1959), U.S. Pat. No. 3,473,198 (Meier 1969), U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,489 (Johnson 1974), U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,101 (Harkavy 1984), U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,293 (Blum 1985), U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,198 (Schweitzer 1986), U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,787 (Walls 1989), U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,000 (Rowland et al. 1993), U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,719 (Koethe 1994), U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,589 (Lubrani et al. 1995), U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,947 (Lascher 1995), U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,477 (Mathis et al. 1996), U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,517 (Gourley 1997), U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,483 (Polk 1999), U.S. Pat. No. 6,952,864 (Moreno 2005), U.S. Pat. No. 6,988,298 (Temasky et al. 2006), U.S. Pat. No. 7,003,903 (Johnson 2006) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,117,616 (Hull 2006). Other decorative accessories are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,439 (Gentry 1988), U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,190 (Smyth 1992) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,220 (Emy 1999). Design patents disclosing devices to be attached to shoelaces are shown in Design Pat. Nos. D210,649 (Getgey 1968), D406,177 (Milroy 1999) and D481,864 (Landry 2003). Other attachments for shoes having sole wiping pads are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,426 (Braggs 1989), U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,106 (Emerick 1995), U.S. Pat. No. 6,128,801 (Adzick et al. 2000). Other lace-on attachments for shoes are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,278,378 (athletic performance and entertainment products Feiner et al. 2001), U.S. Pat. No. 6,729,088 (mounted picture; Ferguson 2004), U.S. Pat. No. 6,684,543 (identification tag; Fernan 2004) and D401,934 (pager module, Wicks 1998). There are also devices known for changing replaceable straps for open face women's shoes for decorative reasons, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,439,935 (Kelly 1984) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,651,359 (Bricker 2003). Design straps for sandals are known from various design patents including the following U.S. design patents: D468,523 (Steger 2003), D514,285 (Mouchi et al. 2006), D519,723 (Mouchi et al; 2006), D521,213 (Mouchi et al. 2006) and D523,214 (Mouchi et al. 2006)